Successful treatment of suicidal risk: What helped and what was internalized?

Background: In this article we focused on analyzing surveyed patient-generated responses based on two outcome questions derived from a suicide-specific framework called the Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS): Q1 – "Were there any aspects of your treatment that were particularly helpful to you? If so, please describe these. Be as specific as possible." Q2 – "What have you learned from your clinical care that could help you if you became suicidal in the future?" Aims: To develop a reliable coding system based on formerly suicidal patients' responses to two open-ended prompts and examine most frequently identified themes. Method: The present study utilized a consensual qualitative research process to examine responses of clinically resolved suicidal patients, based on the CAMS resolution criteria (i.e., three consecutive CAMS sessions reporting the effective management of suicidal risk), to two Suicide Status Form (SSF) outcome questions (n = 49 for Q1, and n = 52 for Q2). Results: Reliable coding systems were developed and used to determine major themes of successful patient responses. Conclusion: The results of this study provide insight into patients' experiences of a successful treatment for suicidal risk with larger implications for suicide-specific treatments in general.